The Chief of Defence Forces, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has triggered a major shake-up at the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC), accusing immigration officers of deliberately frustrating Ugandans — particularly those of Banyarwanda heritage — in accessing national identity documents.
In the wake of his public directive, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) has recalled Brig. Gen. Kasita Gowa and Brig. Gen. Johnson Namanya Abaho from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, effectively ending their tour of duty at Immigration.
The two brigadiers, who had been seconded from the UPDF in 2021 to oversee reforms at DCIC, confirmed their departure in an internal memo, stating they would return to Defence headquarters for other assignments.
Their recall followed a strongly worded intervention by Gen. Muhoozi, who announced on X that he had ordered the removal of “ALL the officers in immigration that were making life hard for our Ugandan – Banyarwanda to get IDs immediately.”
In a subsequent post, he escalated the matter, alleging that immigration officials had even denied identification documents to his grandmother.
The CDF’s statements suggest that the shake-up was driven by claims of discrimination, obstruction, and bureaucratic resistance within Immigration — particularly in the processing of national identity cards.
Although the Ministry of Defence has not formally confirmed that the brigadiers’ recall was a direct consequence of Muhoozi’s directive, the timing strongly indicates that their removal is tied to the crackdown.
Brig. Gen. Gowa and Brig. Gen. Namanya had been deployed to DCIC at a time of tightened border controls and stricter citizenship verification processes. Their tenure coincided with enhanced vetting measures for national ID and passport applicants, especially among communities with cross-border ancestry.
The Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control operates under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and works closely with the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) in issuing national IDs and passports — documents essential for voting, banking, land transactions, SIM registration and access to government services.
Gen. Muhoozi’s intervention now places Immigration at the center of a politically sensitive debate: whether strict citizenship verification measures are safeguarding national security — or unfairly denying rightful Ugandans access to identification.
As of press time, no official replacements for the recalled officers had been announced, and it remains unclear whether formal investigations into specific immigration officials are underway.
However, the CDF’s public stance leaves little doubt about the reason behind the shake-up: access to national IDs, alleged discrimination, and what he described as unacceptable obstruction within Uganda’s immigration system.
